A UNC School of Government Blog
The top story of the week was really several stories — the News and Observer’s three-piece series on Tracey Cline, the District Attorney in Durham County. As a Durham voter, a News and Observer subscriber, and someone who works closely with prosecutors, I’m going to refrain from editorializing about the series. You can read the … Read more
The court of appeals decided State v. Howard earlier this week. The opinion addresses several issues, but I want to focus on what is sometimes called the connected crimes doctrine, which allows the state to introduce evidence of uncharged crimes closely related to a charged offense notwithstanding Rule 404(b)’s limitations on evidence of uncharged bad … Read more
Under G.S. 15A-534.1, when a defendant is charged with assault, stalking, communicating threats, or certain other crimes against “a spouse or former spouse or a person with whom the defendant lives or has lived as if married,” a judge, rather than a magistrate, must set the defendant’s bond. The same rule applies when a defendant … Read more
I’ve been asked several times recently whether a particular set of facts should be charged as embezzlement, in violation of G.S. 14-90, or as larceny by employee, in violation of G.S. 14-74. Struggling to answer those questions led me to realize that I didn’t have a good understanding of the relationship between the two offenses. … Read more
Several high profile murder trials are headed for a conclusion in the near future. The News and Observer covers the Robert Stewart trial here (the defendant admits killing eight people at a nursing home, but contends that due to his mental illness and use of prescription drugs, he is not legally culpable), and the Joshua … Read more
In a post here, I wrote about the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Bullcoming v. New Mexico, 131 S. Ct. 2705 (2011), holding that substitute analyst testimony in an impaired driving case violated Crawford. Bullcoming was no great surprise in light of the Court’s prior decision in Melendez-Diaz. However, less than one week after the … Read more
The North Carolina Supreme Court decided Lee v. Gore last Friday, affirming the court of appeals and holding that DMV lacked authority to revoke the petitioner’s driving privileges pursuant to G.S. 20-16.2 based upon an affidavit that failed to allege that he willfully refused to submit to a chemical analysis. I’ve written about this case … Read more
I’ve written about traffic stops at some length, in this paper. One of the areas in which the law is unsettled is the extent to which officers may engage in investigative activity during the stop that is not related to the purpose of the stop, especially if such investigative conduct prolongs the stop. Here’s what … Read more
Every cell on the felony sentencing grid is divided into three ranges of permissible minimum sentences—mitigated, presumptive, and aggravated. Most defendants (69 percent) are sentenced in the presumptive range, about a quarter (27 percent) are sentenced in the mitigated range, and the remaining 4 percent are sentenced in the aggravated range. At the low end … Read more
Earthquakes, hurricanes, and other natural disasters have been top-of-mind for most North Carolina residents this week. Not for me, though. I have remained focused like a laser beam on tracking criminal law news. 1. I blogged last week about the Durham murder case that was dismissed due to the state’s release of the decedent’s bones … Read more